Hyun-Jee Park

Research

Research interests

In these days, most adolescents in Korea are constantly consuming great variety of media via many platforms. It means they are consuming more media but entirely different ways. They are happy to chase content across new media such as internet, mobiles and social networks. Then, how all these media uses affect adolescent’s identity? We need to have knowledge about relationship between youth and the internet because it is obvious that they are the most important users. However, how much are we realizing about the effects of internet today? I do not think that we are realizing that much, I mean we know some points but we are just ignore that because it has already been part of our lives.

Thesis

Social Media, Youth and Identity: Identity Formation through Social Media among Korean Youth

The purpose of this study is to provide a better understanding of Korean adolescents by exploring their identity construction through the internet usage especially focusing on the social media.

The field of Internet; social media and identity formation – including personal, cultural, and other dimensions of identity – in adolescence is an exciting area of research and offers great potential for understanding how and why some adolescents appear well-adjusted whereas others do not.
I hope that the issues discussed in my research work have helped to bring together and summarize the existing literatures, as well as to highlight unanswered questions that can help to move these fields forward. In addition, I hope that I could demonstrate the benefits that social media can offer, as well as provided advice on how to make these experiences positive for youth. One thing is certain that it is impossible to go back to a time without social media. Therefore, we need to learn how we can capture the potential of social media and at the same time ensure that it is a safe, engaging, innovative, interactive environment for youth to give their voice.

Supervisors